Why is Mark Wahlberg picking on Tie Domi?

Mark Wahlberg, Tie Domi fight: Actor challenges NHLer to spar at ACC

Late Tuesday night, news broke that during Mark Wahlberg’s recent visit to Toronto to promote his upcoming film Broken City, the Bostonian actor challenged one-time NHLer Tie Domi to a fight — at the Air Canada Centre, no less.

“Hey, Tie Domi, I’m officially challenging you,” Wahlberg said when Domi called him during an interview at his hotel. “I’m officially challenging you to a fight at the Air Canada Centre. Are you in or not? Don’t duck me.”

Wahlberg, whom Domi has allegedly been “ducking” for some time now, reasoned that Domi ought to take up the challenge because there’s no hockey right now, which either means Tie Domi doesn’t do anything ever but watch NHL games or Wahlberg has no idea that the former Maple Leaf has been retired for six years.

I don’t want to fight him on skates, I want to fight him in the ring. But I pose the challenge right now

“He’s fun because obviously he’s a big hockey fighter but boxing and hockey is pretty different,” Wahlberg said. “You can’t hold somebody’s shirt and punch with the other hand, and there’s no body protection, no equipment in boxing. I don’t want to fight him on skates, I want to fight him in the ring. But I pose the challenge right now.”

Domi did show up at the hotel to meet Wahlberg, and while he declined to fight the actor, he did reveal to reporters that Wahlberg often poses such challenges to him which, whoa, way to bury the lede! How often does he pose these challenges? Are they serious, “I want to fight you right now, you fat-headed dummy” (Wahlberg made one such joke in Toronto on Tuesday) type challenges? Is Tie Domi being bullied by Mark Wahlberg?

We assume not, and that it’s more a case of Wahlberg drunk-texting his friend of 23 years (the two met at a Funky Bunch concert when Wahlberg was 18) occasionally that he loves him so much he’d like to punch him in the guts. The two did appear in an (awkward though well-intentioned) anti-bullying video to support Ottawa organization Do It For Daron, after all: